1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicles suitable for traveling over rough terrain.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles suitable for traveling over rough terrain are conventionally known. Among such vehicles are an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and a recreational off-highway vehicle (ROV) including traditional transmissions. Some of such vehicles are known to use semi-automatic control in which a shift switch is operated to drive an actuator, such as an electric motor, so as to shift gears of a transmission. A driver of such a vehicle does not have to operate a clutch, thus relieving the burden on the driver's operation. Because an ATV includes a steering bar, a shift switch may be provided close at hand when semi-automatic control is used, so that operations performed on the shift switch are facilitated. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,081 B1 discloses an ATV including a steering bar provided with a shift switch. Because the shift switch is disposed close at hand, a driver can operate the shift switch to shift gears of a transmission without having to release his or her hand from the steering bar.
Unlike an ATV, an ROV includes a steering wheel and thus cannot be provided with a shift switch disposed close at hand. A possible solution is to provide a shift switch on the front surface of the steering wheel, for example. However, a driver of such an ROV frequently has to operate the steering wheel during traveling, and thus finds it difficult to operate the shift switch that rotates together with the steering wheel. For example, US 2013/0092468 A1 discloses various shift operating elements with which an actuator, such as an electric motor, is driven so as to shift gears of a transmission, but unfortunately does not disclose any specific structure for each shift operating element.